Quicksilva

Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s.

Quicksilva
Private
IndustryVideo games
FateSold to Argus Press Software, Dissolved
Founded1979; 41 years ago
FounderNick Lambert
HeadquartersMaybush,
Southampton
,
UK
ProductsGridrunner, Bugaboo, Ant Attack, Zombie Zombie, hardware

Quicksilva was founded by Nick Lambert in 1979. The name Quicksilva was inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service[1]. Quicksilva mainly released games for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, but also did conversions and some original games for the VIC-20, Dragon 32/64, Oric-1/Atmos, BBC Micro and Acorn Electron home computers.

Amongst the company's successes were Jeff Minter's Gridrunner (1983),[2] Bugaboo (1983, a.k.a. La Pulga) and Fred (1983, titled "Roland on the Ropes" in the Amstrad version), two titles licensed from Spanish software house Indescomp S.A., Sandy White's Ant Attack (1983) and Zombie Zombie (1984) for the ZX Spectrum featured revolutionary 3-D graphics for which a patent application was made.[3]

The company was most successful during 1983–1984, during which time it released a Star Raiders-style game entitled Time-Gate (1983) and the first official home computer conversion of Atari, Inc.'s Battlezone (1984). Also in 1984 they released Fantastic Voyage (an official licence from the 1966 film),[4] The Snowman (an adaptation of the 1978 book), and The Thompson Twins Adventure (an adaptation of the Thompson Twins single, "Doctor! Doctor!"). A notable exception to the games released at this time was the Music Processor (MuProc, 1984)[5] produced by Andy Williams for the BBC Micro.

Later years

In 1984 the company was bought by Argus Press Software[6] which later became Grandslam Entertainment. Managing Director Rod Cousens and Software Manager Paul Cooper left to establish Electric Dreams Software.[7]

The company's release schedule slowed down after that point although it went on to produce popular games such as Glider Rider and the home computer versions of Elevator Action, both in 1986. In 1985 and 1986 it released two games based on the Rupert Bear's franchise; Rupert and the Toymaker's Party and Rupert and the Ice Castle respectively.[8] Both had outstanding graphics, animation, music and sound effects for the time.

The Quicksilva name last appeared on the home computer version of Pac-Land (1989).

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References
  1. A first-hand account of Quicksilva and its part in the birth of the UK games industry, 1981–1982
  2. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-06-code-britannia-sandy-white
  3. "3D Ant Attack". CRASH (1).
  4. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/games-info/f/FantasticVoyage.txt
  5. "Retrocomputing: Who wrote the Music Processor (Muproc) program for the 8-Bit BBC Micro?". www.quora.com. Retrieved 2017-12-02.
  6. "Your Spectrum 06 - Frontlines".
  7. Goodwin, Simon (September 1985). "Planning our Future". CRASH (20). Retrieved 2007-11-09.
  8. http://www.the-commodore-zone.com/articlelive/articles/3/4/Taskset/Page4.html
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